How to Win Her Heart
by WistfulSin
Summary: Yusuke goes to America to allow Keiko to live happily without him. A new friend makes it her mission to see him back with the love of his life. Things have a funny way of happening in life, especially when you aren't paying attention. YxK; YxOC
1. Trial Run

Soooo. Here I am, trying something new. I'm writing a YusukexOC story! I hope, haha. Anyways, this is my first attempt at this genre. I'm a HieixOC girl by nature, but I got this idea, and it wouldn't let me go. Much like why Shinpi ended up with Hiei, if you've ever read my other stuff. I promise not to forget how connected Keiko and Yusuke are, and I really hope to create a different sort of story than the usual Yusuke ones.

I want as much criticism as it takes to get this right, because I'm like that. Anyways. Here's the first chapter, which is going to act as my trial run. Hope you guys get a taste for it.

* * *

"_**We all have big changes in our lives that are more or less a second chance."- Harrison Ford**_

"I dunno guys, I just could really use your support in this." Yusuke shrugged in his green jacket, brown eyes a little dull with exhaustion. Kurama looked at him with sympathy, only stirring the hanyou's temper.

It had been a hard year for him. Since coming back from Makai things in Ningenkai, or at least his home city, had changed dramatically. His world was askew and he saw no way to reset it.

"She'll come around," Kuwabara patted his friend's shoulder with an unhappy look.

"We tried." Yusuke shrugged uselessly again. Hiei was off in Makai somewhere far away from their conversation and probably happier for it. "I mean, I can't say I blame her. If roles were reversed, I couldn't say for sure I'd be able to handle it."

"She loves you." Kurama tacked on, trying to make his friend understand.

"She always will. She's been my best, hell most of the time my only, friend since kindergarten. I've always had Keiko on my side, at my back." Yusuke swallowed the sickening emotions rising in his throat. "But, it's time she had a chance to be Keiko Yukimura and enjoy her own life. She's spent every day worrying about me or trying to keep me out of trouble since we were five. I don't want to do it to her anymore."

The group of three was settled on the grass in a part of the temple grounds that most people couldn't have made it to without losing a few limbs. It was nothing for each of them now to wander through the forest. Yusuke had made it all the way to the mountains at the far reaches of Genkai's land once. But that had been a very bad day and he didn't remember most of it.

He'd come back from Makai with a smile on his face and his heart on his sleeve. He adored Keiko. He loved her more than he did himself. She felt the exact same way, and they were dating seriously before he'd even settled back in to human life. He got a job and really tried to be the straight arrow she deserved, as she went to the university to become a teacher. Things had been going very well and he proposed only a few months after his return.

But after that things began to change. It happened so slowly that no one actually noticed until it was done. Yusuke began to take up missions again and worked a job that offered few hours, but he wanted to make money to support them. Keiko began to worry more and more while he was hunting and fighting demons until she made herself sick with it. He'd been gone for a week at one point with no contact and no warning and she took it harder than usual. She didn't sleep at all and collapsed at the university from her exhaustion.

After that, they both began questioning their relationship silently. Keiko loved Yusuke, there was no doubt in that. But he was worried that their lives would never change and couldn't stand to see her worrying so much and she was physically exhausted from it. Three months later they tearfully agreed that maybe some time to reconsider would be best for them both. She had told him the painful truth, and he never begrudged her for it, not one second. There were simple reasons for them to do this. She would die long before him, and worry the rest of her life raw about his health. And what about their children?

They were still friends, and they still would do anything for each other, they just tried to avoid it altogether. They tried to go back to being in the same place as they had been when he'd left for Makai, but it wasn't changing. Like burning a paper, you can't put the ashes back together and read the words again.

"Yusuke, man," Kuwabara rubbed the back of his neck. "This just doesn't seem like a good idea. I feel like you're running away or something."

"I agree. I think you're handling this wrong." Kurama nodded.

"I can't change the fact I'm half demon," he snapped at them. "I can't. Okay? I can't change that I love Keiko either. I _can_ make it so that she doesn't have to worry about me as much. I just want Keiko to have a good, happy life. If that means I have to be half a world away, so be it."

"That is, oddly profound." Kurama blinked after the outburst.

"I still don't like it." Kazuma crossed his arms indignantly over his chest.

"It doesn't matter. It's all been arranged already. I'm going." Yusuke flopped backwards onto the grass enjoy the Japanese sky.

"Have you told her yet?" Kurama asked softly as the brunette started to fall into his own world.

"Yeah," he lulled out sadly. "She wasn't happy, but I think she sees my point."

* * *

"So," Yusuke had a duffle bag and a backpack containing everything he possessed that he wanted to keep sitting on the curb outside the airport. Could he have taken a portal? Probably, but honestly, Koenma was pissed at him and he didn't want to end up in a jungle somewhere close to cannibals.

"So." Keiko smiled at him, her hands clasped in front of her. He had to smile too, because she looked so damn pretty and soft. Compared to him. And all other inferior beings, including pretty much all of humanity and Makai.

"I'm going to keep in touch, but don't worry about me. Koenma said there isn't much I can do to find trouble where I'm going." He assured the petite brunette quickly .

"Yusuke, I trust you. I just want you to be safe." She spoke gently and though it was a soft tone, it hurt his heart to hear it.

"Yeah, well, you've got to promise me that you'll try to do something with your life, 'kay? Because we both know that you're the only with any real purpose." He snorted.

"I promise." She agreed. "Now, are you sure you want to go, Yusuke?"

"I think I have to. You know," he shrugged carelessly. "To make it work."

"To make it work." She repeated stoically. "You're a real moron sometimes."

"Geesh Keiko!"

"You'd better not be doing this to make me feel guilty!"

"It's not like that! I just wanted to make sure you'd be happy!"

"Sure." She looked away with a bit of color in her cheeks. The others were standing inside, waiting for them to finish their personal goodbye. "I'm still going to worry about you. You're my best friend, Yusuke. The first boy I ever cared about. The only boy I ever cared about."

"Hopefully, now, that can change." He had to put on his brave face. It wasn't easy.

"I love you, you know," she told him softly, looking down. He forced a half-smile onto his face.

"I love you too." He told her.

"It's just-" he cut her off with a gentle peck on the lips.

"I know, Keiko." He whispered, pulling her into a tight hug that caused her face to be buried in his chest. For a second he didn't want to go anymore, but they pulled apart and he knew he had to.

They walked inside and he said goodbye after checking his duffle bag in at the counter and receiving his tickets. As his plane was called he ran off with a happy wave, his natural acting shining through, and a grin.

"Don't do anything too stupid!" Keiko, Kurama and Kuwabara called out all at once.

"Don't worry about me!" he called back. "I'll miss you!"

Keiko sniffled as he turned the corner and Kazuma hugged her from the side, a silly grin on his face.

"Sheesh, Keiko. I don't know what you're sniffling about. He was talking to me." He teased and she laughed around the unshed tears. She was going to miss her best friend, her first lover. But he was right, maybe it was time they tried life without each other.

* * *

Yusuke's plane touched down with a stumble and a few skips, jerking him back into consciousness with a shout from him. A few of the other travelers glared in his direction and a child who'd only recently become silent grinned at him happily.

"Well, it's a warm evening here in-" Yusuke began to ignore the pilot on the loud speaker and merely stared out his window into the dim horizon. The sun was already gone but light remained, a side effect of the summer season. Stars were just beginning to shine through the dying of the daylight.

He felt strangely heavy as he jostled along with the other passengers to leave the aircraft. His mind was moving too fast, or slow, to keep him in the present. When he'd gotten his bag from baggage claim and stepped outside, he forget where he was or why.

"I guess this is going to be harder than I thought," he mumbled to himself, shifting his duffle higher onto his shoulder and set off to find a place to stay for a while.

* * *

Three days in Yusuke found himself wandering the streets in the summer heated night. Stars shone above, music and people played around him, and overall the city he was in felt alive. He felt out of place. He kept seeing brunettes and his heart would race, and then fall to a dead stop.

There was a university nearby so many people his age were roaming around too, with backpacks and friends and laughter on the air. He watched some of them chatting around their cars as he sat outside a coffee shop drinking tea. A flyer was tossed into his lap as a peddler walked passed and he studied it quietly for a moment. Some dingy club was being advertised with no cover charge. Must've been a Wednesday.

"Might as well," he rose to his feet and stretched, earning admiring glances from some girls seated around him as his shirt rode up to reveal his stomach. Unaware of the attention he was receiving he walked through the little shop's gate and went off to find trouble.

It was a loud, small place full of college students when he arrived. _Orchestra the Strange_ was painted on the door in graffiti and when he walked inside it was plastered in every possible place. The glasses had it on them, the ceiling tiles were individual decorated with the name in so many styles they clashed with each other. He let out a long whistle that was swallowed by the band on stage, with their heartfelt lyrics and their electronic guitars. Round tables were scattered around an open section of floor that was filled with people dancing and practically dry-humping one another.

"Newbie, move." Someone pushed him out of the way from behind. He didn't quite understand what they said.

"Watch it!" he snapped back, and moved out of the way with a scowl.

"Freaking tourists." Someone else complained though he didn't understand it, making the hanyou grit his teeth. He found a seat at the bar and ordered several drinks in a row.

"Wow," someone sat to his left, making him turn dizzily. Maybe he'd had too much to drink…

"What?" he slurred, making her smile. She was fuzzy, out of focus. "Why can't I see you?"

Someone said something he didn't understand again and he growled. He wasn't sure if it was the beer, the language barrier or the freaking heat to blame, but he was getting angry. He could feel his temper rising with his energy level.

"I'll help you home." He blinked, looking at the girl on his left again. She slipped her hands under his arm and lifted, pulling him to his feet easily as he stumbled. Slipping his arm over her shoulders she lead him from the bar without saying much else.

"I can talk to you." He slurred a bit.

"Yes, you can." She laughed happily, still a vague vision in his clouded mind. "I may be one of the few people around here you _can_ talk to you."

"Why's it so hot?" he complained, sweat running down his spine. The heat and the beer were warring in his stomach, making it roll and lurch annoyingly.

"Its summer," she laughed again, the last sound he remembered hearing.

* * *

"Ahhhhhggggg."

"Is he dead?"

"No, I don't think so."

"Zombies make that noise you know."

"Yeah, I know."

There was a pause as Yusuke wondered what the hell had hit his head.

"If I tell you that you can choose one of the stray cats can we put this guy back on the street?"

"He's not homeless. Well, I don't think he is. He was just trashed and I didn't want anyone to take advantage of him. I sorta feel sorry for him."

"You and your fucking heart of gold."

"Ahhhhgg." Yusuke rolled to his side and curled into a ball, clutching his head.

"You alright, sport?" someone rubbed his back and he really hoped it was the female voice.

"I feel like I was hit by a bus." He whined pitifully, squinting his eyes open and promptly shutting them. "Why is it so damn bright?"

"Hangovers do that to you." She nodded, though he couldn't see it. Then she patted his back and left for a second. He felt something being pushed onto his face and he swung out of reflex.

"Chill out!" someone else snapped, though the words fell onto culturally challenged ears. "Geesh, ungrateful much?"

"What are they saying?" he asked, hearing a familiar laugh. Pieces of the night before started to float around in his memory, blurry and distorted.

"Open your eyes." She chuckled and he blinked at the amber tinted world. "You can keep the sunglasses on for now. They're Vince's anyways."

"I heard that." Vince walked through the living. He was a young man of average height, lean, and dressed in new jeans and an Armani Exchange top. "Don't scratch those sweetie, because they were a hundred bucks."

Yusuke stared at him blankly.

"Vince, he doesn't speak English." The girl who was tending Yusuke said and then turned back with words he could understand. Yusuke found that he could actually see her today.

She had dark hair cut short in one of the trendy bobs that was longer in the front than the back. He noted her eyes were a vibrant green, like healthy grass, as she asked her next question with a smile. She held out a glass and some pills to him. "What's your name?"

"I thought I imagined you." He laughed a bit and accepted the medicine and water she offered. "My name is Urameshi Yusuke."

"Yusuke." She nodded. "Yeah, we might be giving you a nickname. I'm Scotty."

He shook her hand after medicating himself, praying the headache would die quietly. "How did you learn Japanese?"

"A long story." She waved her hand. "Just letting you know that not many people here speak it, though. So I'll be translating. I know my roommates don't."

"Well, thanks for helping me out." He groaned again. "Ugh, seriously, I feel like I was run over."

"You almost were," she blushed a bit and laughed again, though more nervously. "You're a lot bigger than I am, so you were a bit much to manage and you stepped off the curb. If I hadn't pulled you from in front of the taxi, I'd have some explaining to do, eh?"

Since his head was pounding less like an unbalanced washing machine he found he could focus his eyes more, through the tint of the sunglasses. She wasn't a small girl per se, but she was rather lean. Her right arm was bandaged from under her button front tee to her elbow. He blinked and frowned at that.

"Did you get hit instead?" he asked seriously.

"Just clipped by the side mirror," she waved off his concern like it was nothing to her, getting nearly squashed by cars.

"Thanks for looking out for me," he blushed a bit admitting that she'd had to step in and help him. He really didn't know what he would've ended up doing on his own, but it probably wouldn't have been good.

"Everyone needs at least one friend in the world, right?" she shrugged and got to her feet. She wore loose shorts that ended around her knees, which were scrapped with healing scabs. A band tank top was out of the shorts and under the button-up, and she wore low tops that were solid black.

"Yeah." He studied her more and noticed a black braided belt around her waist. It seemed out of place. "That's a strange belt."

"Yes, yes it is." She agreed without giving in to his quiet question to explain it. "So, you feeling better sport?"

"Yeah." He nodded, feeling mostly monosyllabic suddenly.

"Great, breakfast is ready and then I'll walk you home!" she grinned cheekily and left him on the couch he'd woken up on. He looked around as he swung his feet to the ground slowly. Wherever he was it was bright and lively. Plants in pots hung from the ceiling and sat on the windowsills with colorful flowers and lush green leaves. Outside the window he could see tall sunflowers following the sunlight.

Posters on the wall depicted things he couldn't really read and there was a lot of architecture photographs beautifully framed. Two book shelves bordered a healthy sized television with too many gaming consuls and devices for him to count.

"Come on slacker, it's time to eat." _Vince_ sauntered back through the living room from a hallway, his blonde hair styled in that 'I only spent five minutes on this and I still look better than you' way. Yusuke already felt like he didn't really like Vince. "Seriously, come on, man."

Not understanding what the other man was saying as he rolled his eyes, Yusuke got to his feet to go find the dark haired woman in the boyish clothes. At least she smiled at him and spoke in a way he could follow.

"Here." As soon as he entered the dining room he was shoved into a seat and had a plate of food tossed in front of him with silverware. He blinked and looked up as the ever moving Scotty bustled around the room delivering more plates around the table.

As he watched her another young man, younger than what Yusuke felt a twenty-year old American would look like, staggered into the kitchen with a loud yawn as he stretched his back. He wore blue sleep pants and a white tank top. His eyes were half closed and his light brown hair was messy.

"Whose the new kid?" a woman spoke making the hanyou jump, as he turned to find the voice. Humans were sneaky. She had long brown hair and an expression that vaguely reminded him of Shizuru when she was more engaged. Her eyes flitted up and down him and then she leant forward and spoke in a drawn out way, "What is your name?"

"His name is Yusuke and he's Japanese, not deaf." Scotty the Savior reappeared and smiled calmly at Yusuke. "She wants to know your name and why you're here."

"I got drunk and she brought me here." He explained lightly and turned to study the food in front of him. The woman looked at him with raised eyebrows and the other newcomer stared dully at him. Obviously Scotty had been right, none of them could understand the words coming out of his mouth.

" There's an Asian guy at the table. Am I dreaming again?" the young boy asked Scotty, who smiled kindly and told him to eat.

"Yusuke, this is Joshua, Vince's cousin, and Annabelle." The dark haired woman told him, "You'd better eat though, hon, or your food will get cold. No one likes cold eggs."

And she was off again, running around.

He poked at the mixture on his plate tentatively with his fork and then slowly took a bite to test it. After that he swore to always eat whatever the shorter woman put on his plate, even if it did look like a joke. The concoction of fried potatoes, peppers, onions, cheese and eggs was absolutely amazing even to his alcohol soaked stomach.

The group around him chatted normally, as if he didn't exist, which Yusuke found himself fine with. He couldn't understand to participate anyways. The only one who ever said anything to him was Scotty, and she was washing dishes and making more food, and occasionally eating herself.

"Come on sport, it's time to go." After washing the dishes and grabbing a shoulder bag made of leather that draped across her body, Scotty grabbed Yusuke by the shirt and pulled him from the house. She had a pair of headphones, hot pink, draped around her neck as they walked and the wire lead down into her bag.

"Why do you keep calling me sport?" he asked as he followed her down the sidewalk.

"What's your address," she ignored his question. He told her and she nodded, stopping in the sidewalk to switch directions. "It's just a term of endearment. Like a pet name, I guess, except not intimate."

"Okay," he shoved his hands into the pockets of his wrinkled jeans.

"So, who was she?" she asked bluntly with a smile as they walked. It was early in the afternoon and the heat wasn't quite intense enough to make it uncomfortable yet, and the humidity was still ignorable.

"Who?" he scowled.

"Fine, you don't want to talk about it." She widened her eyes and looked away from him. "Anyways, I guess that explains why you're here."

He watched her for a few quiet seconds and wondered how she was making all of those connections without him actually saying anything.

"She's my best friend." He blushed red as he explained.

"Sounds like love." She declared, a knowing look on her face. He shrugged uselessly. "I get it. Some things just don't work out, right?"

"We're still friends." He defended slightly, as if she'd insulted their relationship. She cast him a sidelong look and just looked forward without responding. "What? We are. Keiko is the best thing to happen to me, ever, okay? And we're still friends."

"You're so in love with her that even I can see it and I've never met you sober." She whirled around and poked him in the chest with a stern look. "Mr. Urameshi, I'm going to have to call bullshit on this little 'we're just friends' charade and point out that you are readily and fully in love with this Keiko woman."

He was startled into silence.

"That's what I thought." She huffed. "Now come on."

He stared after her for a few seconds before bothering to try to catch up with her as she walked ahead.

"What kind of name is Scotty for a girl?" he asked, winding his arms behind his head as they walked on.

"The awesome kind." She shrugged with a smile. They passed an open market and she grinned and stopped, examining some fruit. He watched her navigate through the perils of haggling and selecting the perfect pieces of edible bounty.

"You're sort of hyperactive, aren't you?" he droned with a mumble, discontent at her easily distracted nature.

"No, I can just do more than one thing at a time." She smiled at and thanked an older gentleman as she purchased cherries, oranges, apples and peaches from him. "Yusuke, if you're going to live here, you're going to have to learn how to _live_ here. Farmer's Markets are a huge summer thing, and the produce is cheaper and better tasting than grocery stores."

"I don't really ca-" she shoved a cherry into his mouth in middle of his complaint and he nearly choked in surprise. With a wicked look she waited for him to stop sputtering and chew. Begrudgingly he said, "Yea, that actually wasn't _too_ bad."

"You're going to be a mess," she sighed, shaking her head balefully. "So be it, I guess. What's life with some challenges?"

"What are you talking about?" he asked as she slipped into English. It made him frown.

"Nothing," she waved off the words she'd spoken and slipped back onto the sidewalk backwards, walking facing him as they continued their journey. "So, Yusuke, are you always this big of a sour puss, or is it a special reaction to my company?"

He glared at her.

"I'm not being sour."

"Dour, then. Overall unpleasant." She stopped with her heels teetering off the edge of a curb as they came to an intersection. A car whizzed passed without slowing down as it flew across the intersection to head in the other direction. He raised his eyebrows, impressed so far with her ability to navigate without looking. She hadn't bumped into a single person or been hit by a single car yet.

"I'm," he paused and considered his attitude. "Fine, I don't know."

She smiled happily at his answer, confusing him.

"What?" he demanded, stepping forward as if she were some threat.

"It's healthy to admit when you aren't in control anymore," she continued to smile, though less brightly. "Not knowing is a part of life, of the adventure we all sign up on when we take our first breath."

"Let me guess, you're one of those people who chooses to not no squat about anything, right? You just roll with it and let the universe do what it will with you?" he sneered a bit at the idea.

"No," she shook her head. "I learned my lesson dealing with the universe a long time ago. Nowadays I just realize that I can't know or do everything, no matter how hard I try. I still do my best, but sometimes the outcome isn't what I expect. I've learned to accept it."

"How's that working out for you?" he quirked a brow as they crossed the street, turned a corner and stood in front of his ramshackle hotel.

"Well, I'm the one smiling," she told him. "So you tell me."

With that she pulled the headphones onto her head, covering her ears and waved to him. "Have a good time, Yusuke. I'll be around if you ever decide to be sociable."

He waited until she walked passed him, back the way she came with her leather bag full of produce, to go to his rented room. What he wanted was a shower and a nap, and to not be bothered with the wondering thoughts of whether or not he was a changed person. So what if he was a little bit angry? He'd just made one of the hardest decisions of his life without knowing how it would turn out. He felt reasonable.

"Psh. What does she know?" he asked aloud once inside his temporary home. His bags sat open on the floor next to the bed. The only possession of his out in the open was a framed picture of a special girl on a sunny day wearing a blue dress. He stared at the picture for a few seconds.

"Stupid people," he decided after a silent recollection of his somewhat-conversation with the strange woman. "It's just like school all over again, people telling me who I am and what to think."

He decided that after his shower and before his nap he'd use the communicator he kept with him to call Keiko and the others, just to check in. They deserved to know he was still alive, at the very least. After that he guessed he'd have to find something to do with his time other than lounge around.

It was time for him to actually start doing what he came here to do. It was time for him to grow up.

**Preview:**

**"Don't let him bother you," she waved her hand to dismiss the tension with her best look of indifference. "He's harmless."**

** "You're calling **_**that**_** harmless?" he yelled, pointing at the offending figure.**

** "Well, yeah."**

** "Scotty, can you pinpoint when exactly you lost your fucking mind?" Vince asked, appalled.**

** She gave it a moment of consideration, much to the amusement of Yusuke. **

** "No, not really, but I assume that its one of those gradual and then suddenly sort of things."**

** The sound of Vince's palm smacking into his own face could've shaken the building as he groaned her name while shaking his head. "Scotty, you're an idiot. No matter how much I love you."**


	2. A Friend in Need

Zelda's Late Night Lullaby (a techno mix). Beautiful Liar- Beyonce and Shakira. Fingerprints-Katie Perry. Leather Pants- LittleKuriboh.

So, I got some pretty sweet reviews from everyone on the first chapter, so I went ahead and wrote up a second! Chapter three I'll do more explaining of Scotty and her friends. As well as her 'plan'. I hope everyone likes this. If you have any suggestions, questions, comments, etc you can always message me or leave a review! I always answer, though it may take a few days sometimes.

Also, special thanks to Shiningheart of Thunderclan, plasticapplex3, chocolateluvr13, TheSecretSpot, Shadowsammy, , who all left beautiful reviews and encouragement. Especially TheSecretSpot who talked me into posting in the first place XD.

* * *

"_**Even if you fall on your face, you're still moving forward."-Victor Kiam**_

Yusuke was walking down the street in the late afternoon with his hands shoved deep in his pockets to hide his clenched fists. He couldn't find a job to save his life in this city, mainly because everywhere he went they would assume he meant to be somewhere else. He'd been sent to three Chinese buffets for work and one nail salon.

"Watch out!"

He jerked to the side just as someone crashed and flipped over the bench he'd been walking passed. A head of light brown hair lifted with a wince. Yusuke blinked at the boy as he stared back.

"Do I know you?" the boy asked. Yusuke shrugged, wondering the same thing but not able to communicate it as well.

There was a moment of silence.

"I think I dreamt about you!" the boy pointed and promptly scuttled backwards on one arm and both legs like an accusatory crab. Yusuke sighed heavily, finally placing the face. He may not know the words, but the tone said 'I'm in need of medication'.

"At least he's awake this time." He mumbled to himself.

"Are you," the boy now identified as Joshua asked quietly, "are you going to kill me?"

"What?"Yusuke yelled, only understanding that the kid was talking about being killed. "Are you insane?"

"I don't understand!" he declared and then slumped dramatically to the ground and flopped his arm over his eyes. "It's alright, cruel Master Death, I am ready to receive you as my friend and bid this world ado."

"What are you saying?" Yusuke yelled finally, annoyed and unsure what the hell was happening.

"Don't mind him, he's just being dramatic." A familiar voice made Yusuke look down to his right and blink. Scotty stood beside him with a lollipop in her mouth, pushed to her cheek with a bulge, as she regarded her friend. "Josh, get your ass up, please, and stop annoying Yusuke."

"Yusuke?" the light brunette blinked and sat up, squinting passed the sun towards the tall Asian.

"You met him at breakfast last week." She explained and walked over to him. Yusuke realized the boy had on rollerblades as she pulled him to his feet. Fruit was scattered on the grass of the park behind the bench and Scotty sighed, looking longways at Joshua, who sheepishly poked his fingers together.

"Sorry," he grinned shyly, making the dark haired woman sigh before looking over her shoulder. The sun glinted off her eye with an evil spark that made Yusuke swallow.

"So, sport, how has life been treating you?" she asked with a grin, whirling around to reach up and muss his hair. The hanyou smacked her hand away with a growl.

"It's fine!" he snapped at her.

"Really?" she asked, crossing her arms over her chest with the same grin. He frowned.

"Why?" he demanded.

"No reason." She shrugged. "Well, good luck on your next job interview, Yusuke."

And she started to walk off when he grabbed the strap of her side bag, pulling her to a stop.

"How did you know about that?" he asked. She just looked at him.

"Hey, you don't want my help. I get it." She told him with that infuriatingly self-satisfied expression. "When you want someone who can _translate_ for you, let me know. Since I'm the only person in town who can."

"I doubt that." He snorted.

"Then you shouldn't have any problems." She started to walk off again after gently removing his hand from her bag, and Josh stared at him while he skated beside the girl.

Yusuke watched them walk away for a few minutes. He resolved to grow up. Maybe part of that _was_ asking for help…

"Hey!" he called out and ran after his only connection to communication.

* * *

"Told you." Scotty raised an eyebrow and looked at Annabelle on the inside of Orchestra the Strange. Yusuke panted having had to run to catch up them. Josh sat on the counter of the bar with his feet swinging, in socks now instead of skates.

"Will he be any good?" the other woman lulled, looking up and down the hanyou again. Vince walked out of the back with two other men and promptly stopped.

"No. Scotty, no." he waved his hand and she glanced at him.

"Come on, Vince. He needs a job." She fluttered her lashes over those so green eyes and he glared at her.

"I'm just the manager." He threw up his hands, "Ask the boss."

Scotty turned her attention to one of the other men while Yusuke watched and smiled easily.

"Come on Darren, you know you could use the help." She walked over to him with a slight saunter and tilted her head with an innocent grin. The man watched her walk as she got close to him then turned and walked to the stage. "All these heavy boxes and instruments to move."  
"Immigration isn't going to be crawling over me if I hire him, will they?" Darren asked, a dark haired and dark eyed man. Yusuke watched him closely, feeling oddly ill at ease with the way his eyes scanned the young woman.

"He's legal." She told him over her shoulder as she ran her hands over the wooden floor of the stage. Annabelle watched her friend and glanced at Vince who nodded only slightly.

"I'll let him work here on the condition that you dance tonight."

Scotty's shoulders straightened and her body grew tense. Rolling her neck a bit she turned and looked with a less friendly expression at the club's owner. He raised his eyebrows and shrugged his shoulders at her.

"How badly do you need a job, Yusuke?" she asked, turning to the hanyou and pressing her shoulders into the stage. He didn't know how to answer. He needed money, badly, but she looked uncomfortable.

"You don't look happy," he started and was cut off.

"Deal." She walked over and shook hands with Darren. "For tonight. Just tonight, Darren. You know this is a personal favor."

"I know." He nodded.

Once Vince lead the two men out of the bar Annabelle looked over at Yusuke with a harsh glare.

"Jesus, man, I know you don't understand the words coming out of my mouth, but can't you read body language?" she moved a step forward and Josh's eyes grew wide. A small sound came from him as he dropped to the floor in a cowering crouch.

"Belle, it's fine." Scotty walked to her friend. "I'm okay with it."

Yusuke watched, wishing he could understand what was happening.

"Yusuke didn't ask me to help him." She explained and the other woman dropped her glare. Disbelief crossed her features. "I just want to help him, Belle. I mean come on, you remember what it was like."

"I don't like it."

"Noted." They shared a look then Scotty turned with a bright smile to Yusuke.

"What happened?" he asked seriously, watching her bounce as she walked around the bar.

"I got you a job working here. You'll be moving boxes and working as a bust boy and stage hand, mostly. It's not glamorous, and it doesn't pay a whole lot outside of tips, but it's work. It'll tie you over." She beamed at him.

"What did he ask you to do?" he lowered his voice even though no one could understand him.

"He just wants me to dance tonight. It's fine. I used to be a dancer, one of my many talents." She shrugged. "No problem."

"It looked like a problem." He raised his eyebrows and she shrugged, walking to Josh to gently encourage him off of the floor.

"The world is strange in the way that sometimes things look like other things." She had her eyes slightly closed. Yusuke sighed, not understanding why she was trying so hard to make him happy. It didn't make any sense.

"Thank you." He offered since he didn't know what else to do. She looked at him and smiled.

"It's no problem, Yusuke. Always happy to help a friend." She told him and he wondered exactly where they had decided to be friends.

* * *

"Are you excited?" Josh asked as the club opened. Yusuke was behind the bar restocking the liquor and beers. The brown eyed half demon offered the young man a look of confusion, "I'm excited too. I haven't seen Scotty dance in a long time."

_There is something wrong with this kid_. Yusuke thought, not even sure what the hell the boy was talking about. He'd learned that Joshua was a skiddish person, prone to over dramatics and whimpering at the appearance of the smallest shadow. Scotty or Annabelle usually quelled him, but it was still strange.

"I can't believe she's doing this." Vince leaned on the counter with a frown. Then he turned and glared pointedly at Yusuke. "This is all your fault."

Yusuke let a heavy box fall loudly, offering a glare to the man he was sure was trash talking him.

"It's like dealing with someone whose mute and deaf." He complained to Joshua, who just blinked and then smiled happily. "God. You're no better sometimes, Josh."

"I speak your language." He pointed out.

"I speak everyone's language." Scotty appeared before them in a tied shut trench coat. Her hair was straightened and glitter had been added in a spray. Her eyes were done up with smoky shadow and her lips were a vibrant red.

"You look good, at least." Vince pulled her into a hug. "Is he worth it, sweetie?"

"He needs help, Vince." She explained. "You didn't hear what I heard. He has a reason he's here, and it's admirable. He wants to help someone he loves. I want that to happen."

"Fucking bleeding heart." Vince smiled though and winked at the girl.

"How are you?" She looked around the counter to Yusuke, who stared at her with a blink. For a second she thought she had forgotten to speak Japanese.

"You look very different with make-up." He told her finally, and she blushed a bit.

"Yeah, well, that's what it's for, right?" she shrugged hesitantly. Looking down her all he saw was the coat that reached her knees. But from her shins down she had on fishnets and heels. That made him raise his eyebrows.

"What exactly did you mean by dance?" he swallowed, leaning on a stack of boxes with his arms across his chest.

"Don't worry about it."

"Being someone's friend is a two way street, Scotty. You wanted to help me, right? Well, I don't want you to do something you'll regret." He told her and she smiled, looking happy about something.

"Heart of gold." She muttered and turned away from him. "I'm not a stripper, Yusuke."

"Ladies and gentlemen, the wonderful Strange featuring the lovely Scotty." Someone on stage announced and she walked to the stage and climbed the stairs to stand beside a woman who had a microphone in her hands. She was handed her pink headphones that covered her ears and she smiled as the music started to play. She put them on leaving her ear facing the dance floor uncovered.

Yusuke was putting out new glasses when the she started to sing. He almost dropped a decanter when he heard her voice.

"He said, I'm worth it, His one desire." She sang and dropped the coat. The lights behind her grew brighter and she was haloed in light. She had on cut off denim shorts over the fishnets and a shirt that showed a sliver of midriff.

Both girls rolled their hips, backs and bodies to the music. The hanyou blinked, and his chin was tapped underneath by Vince, reminding him to keep his mouth closed. Yusuke complied and swallowed. When the song ended the band played a more upbeat melody.

The other woman sang this song and Scotty just moved herself to the music with a smile on her face. She was definitely flexible, and her hips moved like they had no other purpose but to dance. Her arms and hands moved through her hair, raising the hem of her shirt higher.

She still had on her strange belt, and he watched as she sat on the floor when the music ended. The other woman passed the mic over to Scotty, who grinned and shook her hair until it was big and wild.

"Voted most likely to end up on the back of a milk box drink." She started with a smile, a head shake and laying back she kicked her legs in the air. Swinging up she flipped to her feet and moved her hips side from side. Climbing down from the stage she reached out and held hands with members of the dance floor.

"It's my life and I'm not sitting on the sidelines watching it pass me by," she laughed as someone twirled her. Draping his arm around her she sang on, "I want you to remember me. I'm leaving my fingerprints. I'm leaving my fingerprints. I'm leaving my fingerprints on you."

She pointed at Vince and he joined her on the floor, dancing and laughing. Yusuke watched with thoughts racing.

"She's great, right?" Josh asked Yusuke, who seemed to actually grasp that simple phrase, because he nodded slowly. "I wish she hadn't had to stop."

The night wore on and everyone had a few drinks as the hours passed. By the time the club closed at two in the morning, Vince and Scotty both had light flushes on their cheeks and Yusuke even had had a few beers himself.

"I don't know how you do that," Annabelle gushed. "You make it look like life is easy in heels."

"I think my toes are bleeding," Scotty tilted her head back with a laugh, leaning on the counter.

"Why didn't you want to do that? You looked happy." Yusuke gently touched her arm to gain her attention as soft music still played in the background during clean up. Vince was supervising the efforts of resetting the club to it's opening glory.

"It's complicated," she leaned on the counter with her elbow, her cheek in her palm. She looked relaxed and he envied her. He was tense as hell and his back ached a bit. "So, Yusuke, are you ready to tell me who you're running from?"

He went to answer, but the front door opened. A very obviously drunk man stumbled in, turning the groups' heads in a single eerie movement.

"'Eh Schotty." He slurred and straightened when he saw her. "You looked great tonight."

"Thank you," she looked over an usher. "Do you need us to call a cab for you?"

"No, I was hoping you'd be able to take me home yourself." He walked in further and she frowned. Yusuke looked at her expression and then to the man with a frown himself.

"That's enough. Come on." The usher, a tall well built dark skinned man grabbed the drunk by the arm and pulled.

"Fuck you!" the man spun and hit the door man in the ear, which caused him to cuss loudly. "If she can go stumble home with that jerk, why not me?"

He gestured to Yusuke, and it caused her eyes to widen slightly and her back to straighten at she glanced at the Japanese boy. She walked over and touched the man's arm gently.

"Sir, Yusuke is a friend of mine and I simply walked him home to keep him out of trouble. Now, if you'd like some water, I'll be more than happy to call you a cab." She offered pleasantly, but her face was no longer bearing the common smile she wore.

He grabbed her arm and pulled her to him, moving to kiss her. Her hand reached for her belt, Vince yelled something, and then she was several steps away. Yusuke had his hand on the man's throat. He lifted him a few inches in the air one handed with a growl and was threatening the man in Japanese, receiving a confused but fearful look.

"Are you okay?" Vince and Annabelle ran to the girl who just nodded and shook the encounter off.

The bouncer came over and removed the man forcibly, threatening to call the cops. He looked at Yusuke in surprise, because the tall lean boy hardly looked capable of man-handling the other man.

"Are you okay?" Yusuke turned to Scotty quickly. "I hate men like that, thinking that they can just do whatever they want with women. He's lucky I didn't knock him out."

"Thanks," she just smiled and stepped backwards when Yusuke went to touch her arms to check on her. "I can handle myself, though, Yusuke. You don't have to intervene in stupid scenarios like that."

"What are you talking about? He was twice your size." He gestured widely to the door.

"You're used to being the hero, right?" she asked with a chuckle. "Sport, here, you don't have to save people. We're pretty good at saving ourselves."

He stared at her and pondered that. What was he going to do with his time without mission, or saving strangers, or being attacked?

"But thanks," she told him again. "I appreciate the gesture."

Vince walked over and stared at Scotty for a few seconds, during which she pointedly did not look at him. The contest ended when he shouted at her.

"What the hell, Scotty?" he yelled.

"What?" she raised an eyebrow. He growled in frustration and walked away throwing his hands in the air. She rolled her eyes, turning to Yusuke with a smug grin. "Looks like the fun's over, sport. Get home, safe, alright?"

"Sure." He nodded and watched her go get her jacket and talk to her friends in English.

"You sure you'll be alright?" she called to him as they walked out in a group. He nodded and looked at her again. She looked… different somehow. He couldn't place it, but without the tomboy look and with the heels and makeup she seemed like another person standing on the sidewalk in the middle of the night.

* * *

Yusuke was snoring peacefully, dreaming of a time in junior high when he'd been nearly slapped off the top of the school building by a particular brunette. He mumbled in his sleep and snuggled down into his pillow with a drooling grin.

"Wakey wakey, hands off snakey, sport." Someone poked his shoulder lightly. He slapped the hand away and mumbled something about his mother.

Scotty watched with a bemused expression as he continued to snooze. She'd actually just made her third attempt at waking the boy, but he was a stubborn person. He was clutching the pillow like it was his anchor keeping him in dreamland. Sighing, the dark haired woman looked around his hotel room.

It was a pitiful place, making her scrunch her face. His bags were open on the floor, clothes were sort of just strung out a bit of everywhere, and take-out food containers littered the dresser top and trashcans. There wasn't even a microwave.

She cracked the mini-fridge open and saw it was empty save three bottles of water.

"Now this just won't do." She tisked, and looked back over at the lanky boy.

He was barely covered by the thin blanket that came with the room. It was wrapped around his left leg mostly, revealing he was indeed a boxers man. He slept in a plain white tank top as well.

"How can he sleep through someone rummaging through his stuff?" she asked aloud, and kicked one of his bags pointedly. It made a bang as it hit the wall. He didn't even flinch. "What a slacker. Vince was right."

She resolved herself and then grinned evilly. Well, she figured he was the sort of person who reacted violently when he was attacked unexpectedly…

So she'd just have to be sure to overpower him.

"Bonzai!"

She jumped onto the hanyou with a fierce bounce, making him scream out as he woke suddenly. He spun to his back, ready to fight, and found his arms promptly pinned to his pillow on either side of his head and a grinning face inches from his own.

"Afternoon, Yusuke!" Scotty beamed at him with a thousand watt smile.

"Scotty, the hell are you doing on me?" he asked dully.

"I've been trying to wake you up for almost an _hour_." She told him with a silly grin. Then she pressed her nose to him and asked slyly, "Dreaming about Keiko, huh?"

"Get off me." He told her.

"Make me." She challenged and he smirked this time. She had a good grip on his arms so he bucked his hips, sending her off balance and dove forward in a seamless movement. It ended up with the poor girl being tangled in his blanket with him looming over her.

"Are you happy now?" he asked and realized she was blushing very red. She turned her face away from him to hide her sudden embarrassment.

"Yeah, I'm stoked." She tried to laugh but it sounded awkward and so she scurried from under him and pushed her hair out of her face and behind her ears. "So, you're a sad case, you know that, sport?"

He went to sitting on the bed and stared at her and her strange reaction. She stared at him, her face back to its normal color as she waited for him to respond.

"Why am I a sad case?" he asked her.

"Gee, where do I start?" she sighed, looking around the wreck of his room. "You're living out of crappy duffle bags and a backpack, you have no real food in your room, your clothes are dirty looking, and you're in love with your best friend."

"Are you always this annoying?" he rubbed his eyes, feeling it was way too early to be lectured on his lifestyle.

"Only when I care." She frowned at an overflowing trash can. "Yusuke, we have to do something about this room."

"How did you even get in here?" he glared at her.

"I know the owner." She shrugged. "I know most people."

"Shocking." His tone was bland.

"I'm the only multi-language translator in town." She shrugged. "I do it in off season."

"Off season?" he asked and she just glanced at him as she walked to the bathroom. He heard her open a cabinet and when she came back she had multiple little trash bags for the tiny trashcans.

He watched her as she started to scoop the empty containers and cartons into one of the bags.

"You don't have to do that." He told her finally after she'd filled a bag up. She just looked at him.

"This place is a biohazard. If you don't clean it, they'll kick you out. The maids still snoop around in here, you know." She scolded offhandedly. "And when was the last time you washed your clothes?"

"They aren't all dirty," he frowned, standing up. She didn't look at him and just went back to cleaning. "Did you come here just to clean up?"

"No, I just came to check up on you. I haven't gotten any calls lately to translate an interview." She shrugged and he stared at her.

"You got calls before?" he asked. She stiffened, realizing her slip up.

"Uh, no." she laughed carelessly and rubbed her neck. "I mean, I may have gotten a few messages that I forgot to save asking for my help with a Japanese boy, but-"

"You cost me jobs!" he yelled.

"I got you one that pays better!" she yelled back, though she did look guilty. He frowned at her upset expression. "I didn't want to interfere, and you seemed so unhappy with me when I left you here the other day. Plus, I wasn't even here at the time."

The other day was about two weeks ago at this point.

He scratched his neck. "I wasn't upset with you, Scotty."

"It's alright, I do that to people. I can be sort of overbearing," she gestured to the garbage bags. "It's a part of my personality I can't change."

"So, do I check out?" he asked, trying to bring her tone back up. Honestly, in the past week, he'd started to grow used to the hyperactive young woman. She would show up at the oddest moments, and always have a smile on her face. Though he hadn't seen her in anything like she had been the night she danced.

"No, you are completely incapable of caring for yourself, but you're mourning your love, so I'll let it slide for now." She told him. He fell back onto the bed with a shocked sound.

"I am not!" he protested, though it was futile. Scotty never lost an argument, mostly because she made up her own damn logic along the way and could sweet talk anyone into anything using it.

"Then why do you kiss her picture every night before bed?" she turned to look at him with a pointed look and he frowned.

"How the hell do you know this stuff?" he demanded.

"I didn't, until you told me." She beamed suddenly and he frowned again.

"Anyways, its Keiko. She's always been in my life, alright? It's hard to let go." He shrugged, falling back into a foul mood. Sighing, she decided it was time to fix this.

"Every time I bring her up you turn into a cloud of forlornness." She scolded him haughtily. "Yusuke, what are you going to do about this?"

"Nothing," he shrugged. "We made our choices, 'kay?"

"Typical," she rolled her eyes and went back to cleaning, though more fiercely than before.

"What's typical?" he demanded, scowling.

"You!" she pointed at him, then started to separate his clothes into two piles. Darks and lights. "Let me guess. You never really had anyone to look after you, except Keiko, right? And even her you fought the whole fucking time because you knew it all, and it hurt her, and you tried to make up for it, but you haven't changed one freaking iota since then. But oh well, right? Who cares? You're Yusuke. You can do _anything_."

Her rant had him on his feet. He grabbed her arm so that she had no choice but to face him.

"I may not have been a model friend, or boyfriend, but I always did what I hoped was best for her!" he yelled back at the girl. "You have no right to question that!"

"Then why aren't you _with_ her, instead of here, yelling at me?" she yelled back, a glare on her face. "Why didn't you try to make it work, instead of running away when shit got scary, Yusuke?"

Her intuition hit a nerve and his grip flexed out of habit. She didn't even wince but he found her hand on his wrist and her expression hostile.

"Drop your hand, or lose it, sport." She warned darkly and he did as she demanded with a surprised look.

"Some things you can't fix." He told her finally.

"Bullshit." She snorted. "Some things you just are too scared to overcome."

"You don't know what I'm overcoming!" he defended. "Where do you get this crap from anyways?"

"I take psychology courses as electives!" she snapped back at him and threw the pile of clothes she'd had in her hands into his chest. "If you want to mourn and frolic in your pain alone, fine, Yusuke. But you can't just stew in your self-hate. You have to do something about it before it becomes a toxin you can't flush out of your system."

"That sounds like experience," he whispered as she stormed to the door. Her hand stopped on the handle and she stayed quiet for a second.

"We all have to make sacrifices, Yusuke." Her voice was cold. "I've learned over time that there is a reason you can't handle certain ones."

He watched her go and threw the clothes in his arms to the floor with an angry grunt. He looked at the picture next to the bed and wondered why it was so obvious. He didn't feel like he talked about Keiko too much, or that he acted love struck. He'd never really been that guy, he guessed.

But he couldn't help the guilty feeling swelling in his stomach at the thought of Scotty trying to help him out and him being a jerk about it. Sighing, he decided to try to make peace somehow.

* * *

"What the hell do you want?" Vince opened the door, leaning against the frame, and glared at Yusuke. "You know, Scotty is all in a tiss because of you."

"A tiss?" Yusuke repeated, not sure what he was being scolded for, but knew it included Scotty.

"You don't understand a word I'm saying, do you?" he received a blank look. "Fine. But I'm just going to say, no one upsets Sunflower without some consequences."

"Sunflower?" he blinked, wondering what the hell he was being told.

"Oh great." Scotty pulled her earphones off of her head to settle around her neck as Zelda's Late Night Lullaby played through the speakers at a deafening loudness. She glared at Yusuke. "What do you want?"

"I'm sorry for being a jerk." He looked away as he apologized, nose in the air. "I guess I'm just not sure why you want to help me so much."

"Because it's obvious that you'll die if you don't have _someone_ on your side here." She was standing barefoot in the yard in her shorts and a plain green camisole. He blinked as she walked a few steps toward him, noting movement to the side. As he watched the sunflowers outside the window followed the dark haired little woman like they did the sun.

"I'm not that bad off." He told her. "I mean, I have a place to sleep, a job."

"A broken heart and too much free time." She shook her head. "You need school, a hobby and a plan."

"A plan?" he blinked. Before she could explain Yusuke flew forward and tackled her to the ground. A large brown bird…thing, he assumed, swooped where her head had been. She watched with her green eyes as it flew up high again and circled around to come back.

"Damn it." She frowned. "They found me."

"What?" Yusuke screeched. She just wiggled, still trapped under him, and placed her hand on her belt. Tugging a bit awkwardly, after all she did have a man laying on top of her, she managed to free the weapon she always carried.

Yusuke was on his feet first, though, and delivered a strong punch to the bird demon's side as it came back for its second attack. Vince blinked in the door way, ready to pounce.

"Get up, come on." Yusuke held up his fists, ready to spar. "I'll kick your ass."

The bird looked at him quizzically with its beady black eyes and then turned to Scotty with a screech. The hanyou turned and was vaguely aware of something glowing before the grounded beast hopped at him, scrapping at his chest and arms with its talons.

He pushed his arms out, calling on his energy, and went to hit the bird demon again, but it righted itself and took to the air.

"Do you have non-physical attacks?" Scotty asked with a ragged breath, and earned a steely nod as Yusuke was ready for action and had no time for conversation. There was a snapping sound as she flicked out a black whip that seemed to glow faintly golden. The bird screamed in pain and anger as the whip bit into his flesh, tying around one of its feet.

"Now's the time to use it!" she announced and Yusuke nodded, pointing his finger up and with a grin yelled.

"Spirit gun!"

The blue bullet of energy devastated, and seemed to obliterate, the offending demon as nothing but a few feathers fell from above. Scotty flicked her whip expertly behind her, and managed to coil it around her arm without a wince.

"Where did you get-" he watched as she calmly replaced the whip around her waist as a makeshift belt. "Oh."

"We should go inside." She glanced wearily, and a bit accusingly, at the sky. Yusuke wanted to chuckle. She looked like it was the blue expanse's fault she'd been attacked.

"What the hell was that?" Vince ran forward once they were inside, staring at Scotty in awe. She shrugged.

"You've seen me work before." She told him confused.

"Not you, Scotty, him. The exchange student we never asked for. You know, our mail order Japanese _demon killer_?" he yelled.

"Don't let him bother you," she waved her hand to dismiss the tension with her best look of indifference. "He's harmless."

"You're calling _that_ harmless?" he yelled, pointing at the offending figure.

"Well, yeah."

"Scotty, can you pinpoint when exactly you lost your fucking mind?" Vince asked, appalled.

She gave it a moment of consideration, much to the amusement of Yusuke.

"No, not really, but I assume that its one of those gradual and then suddenly sort of things."

The sound of Vince's palm smacking into his own face could've shaken the building as he groaned her name while shaking his head. "Scotty, you're an idiot. No matter how much I love you."

"I understood the 'you lost your fucking mind' part." The hanyou declared with a grin. Vince turned to him slowly, and stared.

"What the hell are you?" he demanded.

"What?" Yusuke asked, which made the other man growl and grab at his hair.

"Don't mind Vince. He's just having an aneurism." She grinned. Her phone went off, the ringtone a hilarious song about leather pants, and she checked the text message. "Hmm. Annabelle got caught up too. But that should be the last of it. I'll let our clients know what happened."

"Do that." Vince stared at, still stricken. "I need something to drink."

"Vodka's in the freezer," she said conversationally. At this point, it was nothing for her to drive the older man to needing alcohol before ten in the morning. So it was really no big deal for her to do it after noon.

"Fucking heart of gold!" was heard loudly from the kitchen.

"Oh, so, Yusuke, you were asking something?" he stared at her as she carried on their conversation at if the attack had never happened.

He opened his mouth and found no words came out, so he closed it and tried again. She stared at him all the while, confused.

"That's alright, when you remember, just let me know." And she went to the couch to watch cartoons.

**Preview:**

** "You want to help me? Why?" Yusuke asked, a bit shocked.**

** "Because," she looked over at him with a softer smile. Her green eyes shone in a different way. "I want to believe that true love can happen for someone in a world so full of chaos."**

** "You're the strangest girl I've ever met," he stared at her, then looked away. "And that includes two psychics chain-smokers, a partially robotic demon king, and a grim reaper."**

** "I think that's one of the sweetest things anyone has ever said to me."**

** He didn't think she was joking.**


	3. Change of Pace Speed it Up

Crazy Loop (Mm-ma-ma)- Dan Balan . Bad Girl- Danity Kane. MAD- Hadouken (Chase scene).

Finally, this is coming out. Gah. Took long enough, yes? Well, we get to know Scotty a little bit more, and Yusuke gets to see what it's like to be in Vince's house. There's a car chase, explosion, guns, and a near kidnapping. I hope you guys like it!

Oh, also, I've got a blog if you're interested. .com.

And I'm always open to suggestions, critiques, and music suggestions. Come on, tell me how to improve. Thanks to everyone for all the kind reviews, also! I loved them and I hope I replied to everyone who wrote. I always try to.

"**Curiosity is the lust of the mind." Thomas Hobbes**

Yusuke was sitting quietly beside Scotty on the couch, mostly watching her watch the shows on TV. She looked so normal, so innocent when he looked at her from this angle. There were scrapes on her hands and legs, and her feet here dirty from being barefoot. The closer he looked, though, the more she seemed to be something else altogether.

He could see the roots in her hair so close now that he was looking, and they were golden not dark.

"Scotty," he started and she turned to him with a changed expression. Vince came in, fell over the back of the couch, stayed upside down so that his legs were bent at the knee over the back of the sofa, and stared up at the both of them.

"You can't have her." He told Yusuke and glared.

"Vince, how in the world did you get that drunk that fast?" she asked with a heavy sigh, reaching down and mussing his upside down hair.

"Vodka." He nodded, his face turning red.

"Go take a nap, you'll feel better." She sighed and helped him stand up as he slurred some response. Yusuke walked back with them and noticed the photos on the hallway as he passed. They were all well done. They entered Vince's room, which was overly neat while being livable.

There was a large poster sized print hanging on the wall above his dresser of a girl with long blonde hair wearing a black net veil that matched her entirely dark ensemble as she looked down with a look of pure pain and strength. A single tear was caught in time on her pale cheek.

"Yeah, that's my favorite," Vince slurred and then fell onto his bed with his clothes still on, his eyes half closed. "She's so beautiful when she shines."

"Go to sleep, Vince." Scotty smiled and touched his cheek warmly. He nodded and seemed to drift off immediately. She was suddenly glad for the communication barrier.

"Who is she?" Yusuke asked and Scotty blushed slightly.

"That's me." She shrugged, as he balked. Leaving him in his stupor she left the room to go to her own. He paid more attention to the photos as he followed her. Most were of buildings and nature, but there were a few of the same blonde in different set ups. She had on colorful rollerblades that matched her neon headphones and tights in one, a rock n' roll queen in another, and he noticed none of them were of the Scotty in front of him.

"Scotty, who are you?" he asked finally as he came to her door and saw her sitting on a bean bag chair in her room. She just shrugged.

"I'm Scotty Marianne Prince." She told him.

"Marianne?" he raised his eyebrows.

"You would stop there." She laughed and she curled herself up, hugging her knees to her chest. "I want to help you get back with the love of your life, Yusuke. I mean, I've thought about it. We never get second chances that we don't make for ourselves. You seem like you've earned some happiness."

"I don't want to talk about that." He sat on her bed and looked down at her with his brow furrowed. "You manipulated energy outside, Scotty."

"Oh, that." She waved him off. "Yeah, well, I get my energy from light. After all, every light demon does. I think. I'm not sure, actually, I've never met many other demons."

"Light demon?" he asked, shocked. "You're a demon?"

"Yeah," she said as if this were a plain fact. "I'm a light demon. Vince is a weak demon. We don't really know, he has no specialty or anything. Annabelle is non-specialized too, but she's strong as hell. That's why we're partners. Josh… we don't know much about him yet. We just got him. But I think he's going to be like his cousin."

"Got him?" Yusuke shook his head, confused.

"It's a lot to explain, and I'm not very good at it. When you can speak better English I'll have Vince tell you." She shrugged, blushing and looking away from him.

"Are you and Vince, a couple?"

The question caught her by surprised and made her snort in laughter. Yusuke watched as she burst into a fight of giggles that nearly caused her to stop breathing and at one point had her swinging her head back and forth so fast that she fell out of her beanbag.

"I was Vince's… girlfriend once," she couldn't believe this was having to be explained. "But not now."

"What does that mean?" he asked.

"It means she used to be his beard, you know, when a gay guy is in the closet and he wants people to think he's straight?" Annabelle appeared in the doorway, looking annoyed. She was scratched up. Scotty turned and grinned at her as Yusuke stared, still confused, and now aggravated he couldn't understand. "What?"

"I'm not going to tell him," she giggled. "This will be more fun. How did you understand what he asked, anyways?"  
"Anytime it's about you and Vince it's that question." She shrugged. "No one guesses brother or sister, they always go for sleeping together."

"Can you blame them?" she laughed. Vince and Scotty had been friends for several years. In fact, there had been a time when he'd been the rock of her world, the only thing that had shone light in her life. But they were passed those dark times.

"What are you two talking about?" the frustrated Japanese boy frowned.

"You frown a lot," Scotty pointed out to him, walking over and using her fingers to force his lips into a smile. "Anyways, don't worry about it, me and Vince aren't a thing anymore. That's all you really need to know, for now."

"Please stop mushing my face." His words came out strangely as she continue to hold his lips up at the corners with her thumps, cradling his face with her fingers. "So, you an Annabelle are partners?"

"Yep." She grinned, "If you smile on your own, I'll leave you be."

His hands came up instead, grabbed her wrists and went to forcibly remove her from his person. When he pulled however, she resisted amiably and he actually found it hard to move her without using more force than he wanted to.

"You're stronger than I thought," he mumbled.

"Have to be." She continued to beam. "Come on, just one smile? Think of Keiko in a pretty dress or something."

That idea did bring a natural smile to his lips and she stepped back, happy to have her way. "Why don't you tell me about her, Yusuke?"

"I don't-"

She raised her eyebrows, reached for her whip and found his eyes growing wide.

"Easier way or hard way, Yusuke. I'm not above hurting you to get the information," she warned, once again wearing that kind grin. He realized she was insane, and though it best not to test her until he found out if she was on medication.

So he went into the story of them meeting on the playground when they were five. After that he found it hard to stop talking, especially when Scotty seemed so interested and asked questions to prompt him. He told her how beautiful Keiko was, how smart, how kind, strong, mature. Hell, he even told her that the girl's favorite color was blue and her favorite flower and birthday.

"You're still here?" Vince came into Scotty's room and balked at the presence of the boy on her bed. "And in Scotty's room!"

"Vince," she sighed heavily, rising to her feet.

"Scotty," he sneered back.

"Yusuke is staying for dinner." She told him stubbornly.

"And after that? You have a case tonight." He reminded her. She paused. "Scotty, I don't like that look on your face."

"Well, Annabelle is the driver, and he did prove useful today," she looked over her shoulder at the foreign boy, weighing her options. "I could always use another pair of boots on the ground."

"No, Scotty, no. We don't know him," he shook his head. "I don't want to trust your life to some street punk from Japan."

"Relax, he doesn't work for Wade." She told him, cutting her eyes darkly at her friend. "I've been prompting him, he knows nothing about us."

"Keep it that way." He advised.

"Nope. This is more fun," she grinned and switched back to Japanese. "Congratulations, Yusuke, you get to come on a case with me tonight!"

"Case?" he blinked, then groaned. "Ah, damn it! Don't tell me you work for Pacifier Breath too?"

"Who?" she made a face that betrayed her lack of knowledge.

"Koenma." He rolled his eyes.

"Who?" she continued to look puzzled.

"Prince of Spirit World?" he asked this time, and she just stared. "Oh, well, what sort of case?"

"You're bodyguards?" he blinked in shock at the two women after dinner. Scotty had made him wait to hear what they'd be doing.

"Of course," she stated simply, waving her hand as if this were nothing. "Translating is rarely necessary around here. And managing the bar doesn't pay all the bills. We had to do something."

"But bodyguards? You two?" he snorted, and Annabelle cracked her knuckles.

Both girls were dressed identically. They had on black cargo pants, steel toed boots, fingerless leather gloves, and plain black tees. Annabelle's hair was up in a high ponytail. They exchanged a look. Scotty's whip was tucked into her belt loops again and Annabelle had a gun on her side.

"What's so funny?" Annabelle asked testily. "Is he mocking us?"  
"Just a bit." Scotty nodded.

"I hate men."

"Yusuke," Scotty held up her hands. "Listen, we're supposed to be escorting a young man from the airport to his father's mansion tonight, outside the city. There is expected to be some… turbulence, involved. Are you coming or are we girls going to have to do this alone?"  
He thought about Scotty and Annabelle being chased down by some burlier men and it made him angry. He could just see the thin girl being tossed around like she had been the other night. No matter that she was a demon, she was still pretty scrawny compared to most of the beings he knew.

"Fine, I'll come," he gave in.

"You'll be wearing Vince's clothes," she nodded to the angry blonde, who scowled at the intruder to his home. He hadn't stopped drinking since his first party with vodka.

"I don't like this." He grumbled.

"Vince, stop being a bitch." Scotty snapped at him, and pointed to his room. Grumbling under his breath he lead Yusuke to the room and let the hanyou change into the clothes. They were a bit snug, but fit alright.

"He doesn't normally come with us," Scotty explained when Yusuke rejoined them in the living room. "But when we first started he wanted to make sure we could do it."

"So, you're really a bodyguard?" he shook his head. "I was expecting something else. Something more otherworldly."

"Just a tip, Yusuke. Here, we all share the same world." She stared at him and he stared back. "There is no differentiation. Demons, people, beings between or after, they all walk together."

"Where I come from, there's a barrier and a slew of different worlds." He explained to her. "One just for demons."

"I'd like to see that," her lips perked into a slight smile. "Come on, let's go save some rich kid."

Vince hugged and kissed Scotty's cheek before they left. Yusuke again wondered about them, but kept it to himself this time. Annabelle led the way out into the garage, where the topless Jeep that had nearly killed him a few weeks before was tucked away. Scotty pointed to the backseat for the taller boy, and took shotgun for herself while Annabelle got behind the wheel.

"Hold on," she warned and before the door was all the way open, Annabelle threw the Wrangler into reverse and barked her tires as they screamed out of the garage. Yusuke shouted in surprise, and dove for a seatbelt as he was thrown into the side of the topless vehicle when she jerked into the road backwards, pointed in the right direction. In the split second it took her to get into drive, he was buckled up, eyes wide.

"What's the plan?" she asked the dark haired girl in the passenger seat.

"You wait on the curb, Yusuke and I go retrieve the boy. We get him to the car, you take off. We take a different route to his house, it takes longer, but it should be unexpected."

"What if they have posts on each entry?"  
"We take them out. Boy unharmed is the priority. Daddy is powerful, doesn't want a hair out of place on his son's head."

"Threats?"

"Assassination, kidnapping."  
"Training?"

"Class A. I'm expecting heavy fire from semi-autos. Expect diversions. We don't act like people tonight, I don't care if there's a car on fire and a woman is screaming about her kids trapped inside. We ignore it, call the cops."

"What's the deal?" Yusuke leant forward, "You sound serious. She recapped the situation for him and he raised his eyebrows. "What do they want this kid for?"

"Extortion. There's been a kidnapping threat against him already," she explained. "A near abduction. He had security on him, but they didn't cut it."

"So this guy called you two?" he was still skeptical. "No offense, Scotty, but you don't strike me as the fearsome sort of person."

"You'll see." She turned back in her seat, rummaged through a bag that was on the floorboard, and turned back to him with a photograph. It was of a young man wearing a button-up, tie and sweater vest. His hair was light brown and gelled into place. "This is Rodger, he's out priority for the evening."

"Why do you keep calling him a priority?" he asked curiously.

"Because it's what he is. On missions like this there is nothing else. You have one priority, one priority only. Keeps us focused."

"We're almost to the airport." Annabelle turned to Scotty. The dark haired girl looked around carefully, noting the cars around them. "We don't have a tail, Scotty."

"Something isn't right." She felt it in her gut.

"Should we call in some outside help?" Annabelle had learned long ago to trust Scotty's instincts. They had saved her live a time or two.

"That's why I brought Yusuke. He's a demon too, but he can manipulate energy without physically touching an object or being." She explained. "He's our ace tonight, he just doesn't know it yet."

"Shouldn't you tell him?"

"Nah, this way we can figure out if he's worth his weight in action." The other shrugged, before turning back to Yusuke. "Unbuckle. She rolls slow, we jump out. I don't want her to be sitting out here for too long."

"Is she going to keep driving like a bat out of hell?" he reached for the clasp and Scotty just smirked, making him sigh. "Please don't kill me."

"We'll try not to," she laughed. The Wrangler pulled up to the curb outside the pick-up at the airport, before it was fully stopped, Scotty was already through her open door and heading inside. Yusuke was slow at keeping up, a bit awkward about exiting a still moving vehicle. He caught up to her halfway to the gate.

"God, Scotty, wait up." He nearly tripped over a small child, making him hop on one foot to skirt the offending being.

"No time." She was walking a lot faster than he thought she would. Her shoulders were tight and squared as he watched her stiffly step through the crowd. "Kid is coming through the gate now."

"How do you know?"

"I can smell him."

He paused. He'd never seen a demon so comfortable with their senses in the human world, save for Kurama and Hiei. He was surrounded by scents, but they were nearly overwhelming with the way they mixed together. He didn't know how she could pinpoint just one.

"If you can't keep up, wait in the car." She toed the red line separating the waiting masses with the people unloading from the plane. She had a serious look on her normally smiling face. He came to a stop beside her.

"You know, in Japan, I was a Spirit Detective," he told her quietly. "I used to fight to save people from demons all the time. Ever since I was fourteen."

"We aren't fighting demons, Yusuke, and we aren't doing some great good," she explained to him. "We're dealing with people here. And we're doing it to make money."

"You wouldn't save someone for free?" he asked, shocked.

"Of course I would," she turned to him with a pointed expression. He mumbled 'Oh yeah, forgot about that'. "But right now that's not what we're doing. We have talents that make us good at our job. And that's what this is, a job."

He went to argue with her and she stuck up a hand to tell him to shut up. The young man from the photograph walked to the gate and stayed behind the red line. Yusuke went forward and was stopped by a lean arm.

"Rodger Cutlass, I'm here to take you home." Scotty told him. "You're father sent your butterfly collection with me, but I left it in the car."

He crossed the line and hurried to her. She walked in front of him and Yusuke took the rear as they marched a line out of the busy terminal. He told her he had bags. She told him someone else who worked for his father would be collecting his things, that they're only job was to get him home in one piece.

"You collect butterflies?" Yusuke asked as they piled into the still running Jeep. Yusuke took the seat behind Annabelle. Rodger stared at him blankly. "Scotty, he collects butterflies?"

"Butterfly is Annabelle's codename, Yusuke."

"Oh. What's yours?"

"Sunflower."

"Those suck. Can I have one?"

"How about, Walking Home?"

"Point taken."

"My father hired women to pick me up?" Rodger asked as Scotty leaned between the seats to force his seatbelt into place. His tone was a bit harsh. "In a topless Jeep?"  
"Oh, I'm sorry, didn't realize you had room to be talking smack to the two people willing to die for you tonight." She snapped at him, turning around, "Hold on, kid."

Slamming into gear, the truck tore away from the curb in a screech of tires and exhaust smoke. Yusuke held onto his side of the little truck and Rodger was whipped around, unprepared for the sudden jerk into life. For a while they rolled down the interstate quietly, cars passing by without incident.

"Scotty."

Yusuke looked up, hearing Annabelle say his friend's name. He turned to Scotty and she looked a bit grave.

"I know."

"Where-"

"Pull off here." Scotty didn't gesture but Annabelle jerked the Jeep down a side road that could barely be seen from the three line highway. The turnoff was paved, but several yards after it was all gravel and dirt. Scotty had a map in her hands and a tactical flashlight pinpointing on their course. It was fully dark outside now. "Cut the lights."

The Wrangler's headlights went off, Annabelle's ability to see in the dark useful tonight. Rodger was talking now, being obnoxious, and Scotty cut her eyes to Yusuke and nodded to the boy.

"Get him on the floor board, do not let him come up. And please don't bruise him if you can help it."

"What's going on?" he asked, unclipping his seatbelt.

"We were being followed. We can still get there from this direction, it's just more isolated for a while. We've got a ten mile stretch of nothing. Then we hit a small town, and it's a short distance from there. It's those ten miles that have me worried."

Yusuke leaned over, unclipped the boy's seatbelt and grabbed his arm. The kid went to struggle, but Yusuke was much stronger than he looked, and he lost the fight. He ended up cowering on the floor, head under Yusuke's legs.

"What do we do?" Yusuke asked quietly, aware now that this was actually a serious situation.

"Do you have on Kevlar?" she asked curiously, to which he frowned. "If I yell gun, you duck too. Other than that, we try to shake them loose."

"Do you do this a lot?" he asked, fidgeting in his seat. He was used to dealing with demons, monster he wouldn't be bothered about killing. These were human beings with guns. His last encounter with a marksmen ended with Hiei's sword.

"Potentially die? Not as often as you'd think." She admitted. "But it only takes once to get used to it."

A Bronco pulled up behind them on the road, making Yusuke jump. It's headlights were blinding in the darkness they had been in.

The Jeep jerked as Annabelle reached for her gun. Scotty leaned over and steadied the wheel as the brunette turned, half leaning out of the Wrangler. She fired two shots of her handgun through the center of the windshield, shattering the glass of the dated Bronco. Yusuke called out and Rodger yelped.

The driver and passenger of the Bronco were yelling vehemently as the passenger kicked the windshield out, sending it crumbling over the hood to fall to the ground. Scotty handed the wheel back to Annabelle as she righted herself. The light demon unlatched her belt.

"Yusuke, gun!" Scotty was already climbing into the backseat, over their 'priority'. She crawled on top of Yusuke as he slid and slumped down the seat awkwardly trying to keep his head down. As she straddled his chest, it put his face even with her stomach. He stopped moving, not wanting to go lower.

Scotty had a gun in her hand, drawn from her duffle up front, that housed a hopper on the top. It wasn't the sort of weapon he'd expected to see drawn. He twitched and winced as two shot rung out and bit into the back of the Wrangler as Annabelle tried to swerve and speed up. She was cursing loudly.

Scotty sighted down the barrel and let out a long breath to steady herself, firing into the passenger side of the Bronco behind them. Someone screamed loudly. Not that the windshield was missing, it was too easy for her. The capsule she fired hit the male passenger in the middle of the forehead, sending him slumping to the floor.

"What are you doing?" Yusuke yelled at her, not wanting to be an accessory to murder.

"Trying to limit fatalities." She explained over the rush of the wind. Her hair was whipping wildly. "These capsules contain a liquid that turns into a gas upon contact with air. Knocks people right out."

She showed him one of the balls, emptying it from the hopper, before replacing it. She fired another shot behind them.

"Where the hell did you get that?" his eyes went wide.

"I know a guy." She huffed defensively, looking down at him.

"Scotty!" Annabelle called as bullets ripped into the side of the Jeep. Scotty looked over her shoulders, green eyes wide. There were two trucks ahead of them filled with guys who all had guns. Big guns. She shot a few more capsules into the Bronco behind them and it swerved roughly before driving into the ravine to their left and flipping over.

Annabelle jerked the wheel, sending the Jeep diving to the right. The jump of the already bumpy road was rough, causing Scotty to stumble. Yusuke grabbed her legs, steadying her.

She pointed to Rodger. "There's a quiver under this bench! Hand it to Yusuke."

She leaned over the hanyou, digging in the narrow space behind the seat. The back came forward, causing his forehead to collide with her hip bone. She hissed a bit and he couldn't help but blush. The seat was righted and Scotty had a compound bow in her hand, while Rodger pressed her quiver into Yusuke's.

It struck the hanyou that she had the strangest taste in weaponry.

Streetlights were spaced far between but were present now, the calling card of the small town they would be entering soon. They had to end this before anyone got hurt. The lights began to go out as they drove under, Annabelle swerving back onto the potholed road. The two trucks were following them at a high speed.

Scotty was still kneeling on the back seat, straddling Yusuke. She took and let out a long breath as the lights died around them. Even the headlights of the trucks following them began to flicker and fade. Her focus was centered down the shaft of the arrow, visualizing it hitting her target. Yusuke stared up in awe as she began to flow a golden light all over. As the wind picked at her shirt he saw a line of glowing skin above her pant line as well.

Time slowed down, the moment seemed still inside the cab of the Jeep. Something tugged on his energy and Yusuke felt like a stranger in his body. His hand glowed with his spirit energy as he touched her legs and the color she glowed reflected that. It turned a light blue.

She let the arrow go, coated in that radiant glow like an extension of herself, and it went through the grill of the closest truck chasing them. There was a grating sound as it ripped through the fan and radiator, finding the engine. A bright light burned through the grill as the truck stopped in a spin of tires and bailing bodies. Once it was still, and glowing brightly, Scotty smirked.

She clenched her fist, which Yusuke noticed even in the slow-motion world he was stuck in.

The truck erupted into a spray of pieces in a light blue colored explosion. The last truck rolled out from the side of the flames as they quickly fluttered down to nothingness.

Scotty grabbed the roll cage of the Jeep and pulled herself through the bars to perch on the side.

"We're going too fast!" Annabelle warned.

"I've got it!" Scotty fired another and it missed its mark, her focus altered as she balanced outside of the Wrangler. The passenger of the other Jeep following them pulled a gun, firing twice. One shot went wide, missing them entirely but earning a squeal from the boy in the back seat. The other bullet pierced Annabelle's headrest to the right of her head, making her scream and jerk the wheel, nearly spilling the smaller girl onto the road. Scotty righted herself and made an angry noise. She jumped.

Yusuke screamed out as she launched herself, landing on the side of the other Wrangler running beside them now. The guys in the truck yelled as she landed.

Annabelle shook her head, fingers on the wheel. Her knuckles were ice-white as dread filled her stomach. She knew Scotty. So she had to believe that her friend would be okay.

"What are you doing?" Yusuke screamed, turning to watch the Jeep slow and swerve as Scotty fought with the passengers. There were bright lights as gun shots rang out, but it was too dark as they continued to race towards the town. He couldn't see.

"Annabelle, go back!" Yusuke yelled at the brunette.

"I can't! I have to deliver the boy!" she snapped out through her teeth, missing that he'd just spoken English for the first time.

He gaped at her as she didn't slow. How could she dare to leave her smaller friend behind? The sunshine Scotty was on her own, and he hated it. What if she got hurt? She didn't seem to know how to manipulate her energy that well. She'd be stuck.

"Scotty." He growled at her darkly.

"I know!" she snapped at him. They hit the town and she slowed the Jeep. "Shut up and sit down, Yusuke!"

He was seething. Reaching down, he jerked the boy back onto the seat. He didn't bother with his seat belt anymore. All he could do was wonder if he could bail from the Wrangler without hurting himself and run back to help Scotty.

Yusuke was quiet, sitting on the bumper of the Wrangler outside the gate of the mansion they'd just left. Annabelle was sitting in the driver's seat, feet dangling out the open door. It was bothersome. He couldn't go to find Scotty because he had no idea where she would be by now. Annabelle had told him to wait there, that Scotty would come.

She didn't seem entirely convinced, which only irritated the hanyou more.

"I'm tired."

Yusuke's head snapped up as Annabelle called out Scotty's name. The small female demon's face was speckled with dark spots, and her entire right arm was coated up to the elbow. Yusuke swallowed. He understood that Annabelle was asking what happened.

"They were a gift from Wade." She explained with a shrug, her eyes betraying her exhaustion for the night. "They… they wouldn't stay down. I didn't have a choice. They were talking about going to the house for Josh and Vince-"

"Scotty, are you okay?" Yusuke got up and walked over to her. She had a swollen black eye, split lip and a cut above her eyebrow. Part of her left arm above the elbow was bleeding. She was a wreck. He took off his shirt and started to tear into pieces. He wrapped the cut on her arm first, then used a water bottle to wet the rest of the rags and wiped at the blood on her face.

"I'm alright. Just very tired." She told him, not moving under his hands. He growled and grumbled, calling her a slew of names all meaning idiot.

"We should get home." Annabelle told them.

"I wanted to come back for you." He told the girl as he wrapped a strip of fabric around her head, to cover the cut above her. He used the rest of the shirt to clean the blood of her right arm. "She wouldn't let me."

"Good." Scotty huffed, a partial smile on her face. "I don't think you'd have been able to handle what you saw anyways."

He looked her in the eye and she stared back.

"I'm King of Demon territory that used to eat humans." He told her seriously.

"Closer." She smiled fully, taking the shirt from his hands. "You can take shot gun. I think I'm going to lay down."

He watched as she climbed into the Jeep and took up the backseat. Annabelle had already started it, they were waiting for him.

"Saddle up or get left behind, Yusuke." Scotty called. He climbed in so they could begin their ride back. She was already half asleep, curled on the bench seat. He wondered what she had that was so bad that she didn't bat an eyelash at human eating demons.

She looked pretty harmless, laying like a child. Despite the bloody streaks on her skin that shown as they passed under the reborn streetlights, she still looked innocent.

He turned back in his seat to look forward instead of glances back to make sure she was still breathing. Annabelle shot him a strange look, which he ignored, settling into his own seat.

It had been a long day. He fell asleep before they hit the interstate.

**Preview:**

** "Send her flowers! Come on, today has to mean something." Scotty poked the boy in the forehead.**

** "It's the first day we kissed." He blushed, and she gave him a sly look.**

** "Perfect."**

** "Send her a stripper." Vince glared at the hanyou darkly. **


	4. Forget Me Nots

Music is my Boyfriend- Skye Sweetnam. Kremlin Dusk- Utada Hikaru

So, this is post one in my race with Shiningheart of Thunderclan. We are in a contest to update each of our stories first, starting today. I have to go and update The Balance of Chaos, What If, and My Own Private Idaho next. I have What If done, so, I'm halfway there!

Take that!

* * *

Yusuke blinked awake, feeling a sense of déjà vu . He was back on the couch in Vince's living room, sun light streaming through the window, sunflowers bowing slightly in the wind. He rolled off the couch and stumbled to his feet. Someone was trying not to make noise in the kitchen. Curious, because he didn't remember making it back to the house, he wandered in to see who it was.

Scotty was bent over at the waist, half-buried in the fridge. All she wore for clothing was her black tee from the night before, a bit ripped up, and what appeared to be Spiderman boys brief. Upon closer inspection, Yusuke found he had seen right. She also had on headphones and was shaking her hips and top half to whatever beat was pouring into her ears.

He wanted to see how long it would be until she noticed him leaning against the counter beside, so he crossed his arms over his chest, trying to decipher the lyrics he could hear blasting even though her over the ear headphones. He realized she was quietly singing under her breathe. He didn't recognize the words.

"Pervert." Vince smacked Yusuke in the back of the head, coming in from the other side of the kitchen. The hanyou jumped in surprise.

"What the hell?" he snapped at the intrusive blonde.

Scotty pulled herself from the fridge with chocolate frosting smeared on her face. She'd been attacking half a cake left in there. Yusuke noticed the butterfly bandage above her eyebrow, the black eye that had gone down slightly, and the wrapping on her arm.

"You look like shit." He told the girl flatly, offering her a napkin to clean her face. She pulled her headphones down around her neck with a quizzical l ook.

"Wha?"  
"You look like shit." He repeated, wondering if her ears were ringing. She listened to her music way too loud. Then he poked beside the cut on her head, making her wince.

"Gee thanks," she frowned, tilting her head back from him.

"Goddamnit Scotty go put on some damn pants!" Vince snapped at her, making her tilt her head.

"But," she pouted, still chocolate smeared. "its Pantsless Pancake Dance Wednesday."

"Did I miss it?" Josh ran in as if cued, sliding on the tile in his socks, wearing boxers and a muscle shirt. Yusuke wondered why everyone was half naked.

"No!" she beamed excitedly. "I was about to start the pancakes."

"I love Pantsless Pancake Day!" he clapped and began to help her set up for breakfast.

"What's going on?" the dark haired boy asked as eggs and buttermilk were shoved into his hands to be put onto the counter.

"It's Wednesday." She grinned happily, ignoring the pulling it caused against the split in her lip. "Wednesday mornings are Pantsless Pancake Dance days."

"Right." He nodded, not bothering to ask further questions. "So, what, you're going to dance in your underwear?"

"While making pancakes," she nodded, cleaning her face. "Do you-"

"Scotty! Do not ask the Japanese kid to take off his pants!" Vince yelled. She stuck her tongue out at him. He couldn't understand her words, but she'd be damned if he didn't always know what was about to come out of her mouth.

"Yusuke." Yusuke turned to Vince with a glare, his accent thick. "My name is Yusuke, not 'the Japanese Kid'."

"Oh, you speak English all of the sudden?" the blonde demanded, slamming a cabinet closed.

"Tell him I understand more than I can speak. The words are still hard for me." The hanyou stared at the battered girl.

"The Japanese kid said he understands more than he speaks, so shut up." She recited with a shrug, mixing ingredients into a large blue bowl. Yusuke, aggravated, tugged her hair.

"That's not what I said!"

"Close enough." She shoved the bowl into his hands. "Mix this."

"How ya feeling? You got pretty beat on." He asked as Josh began to fry bacon across the kitchen from them. Personally, he was surprised she hadn't healed yet. He would have.

"I'm sore, bruised." She shrugged. "Just another day at the office."

"Whose Wade?" his tone lowered, feeling the weight of this subject. He'd heard her mention the name the night before. He understood that someone had threatened the two men in the house. She went still, having been in the process of making biscuits.

"He's just a name." she muttered quietly.

"Did he just say Wade?" Vince jumped in. "Scotty, what happened last night?"

"We were attacked on the job. I," she licked her lips and went to kneading the dough in her hands roughly. "I stayed back to fight. One of the men said they worked for Wade."

"Does he know where-"

"Yes." She looked hard at the dough before ripping into the pieces that would become biscuits. "He knows where we live."

"Fuck." He ran his hand through his hair. Josh had turned to stare at them with fear clear in his eyes. "We'll move again."

"I'm tired of moving. I like it here." She argued. "I'll just handle it this time. We don't have a choice. He keeps finding us."

"You aren't strong enough!" he yelled.

"I could be!" she yelled back. "Think of how much stronger I am now than when we left. Of how much damage I did then, compared to what I could do now. I could be stronger than him."

"Scotty, he'll tear you apart." He whispered. She threw the dough ball on the counter and rubbed her eyes. It littered her hair and cheeks with flour.

"Who is this guy?" Yusuke asked quietly, again.

"Vince can explain it to you." She shoved away from the counter and stalked off. "I don't have the energy for this."

"Scotty!" Josh yelled. "Don't go!"

He followed her out of the kitchen, leaving Vince alone with the hanyou. Yusuke glanced out of the corner of his eyes to the eldest member of the house.

"It's easier to show you." The blonde man pushed off the counter and turned off the oven, the bacon left smoke hanging the air as it burned to a blackened crisp. His face was somber. "You ever try to leave something behind, but you can't? Like when gum sticks to your shoe, it always seem to be there even after you think you've peeled it off."

Yusuke just nodded. "Yeah."

"Come on, let's introduce you to Wade." He lead the hanyou into the living room. Scotty was nowhere to be seen. Yusuke frowned, slightly uncomfortable in the house without her there. This was her place, her friend, not his.

He sat on the couch and settled in as Vince fiddled with a drawer under the television. He had pulled out three video cassettes, making Yusuke raise his eyebrows. There was VCR pulled out next, then wired to the TV. The dark eyed hanyou hadn't seen one of those in a few years.

It took a second of tracking, but soon there was a video playing as Josh remerged from the back.

_"All along, I was searching for my Lenore, in the words of Mr. Edgar Allen Poe. Now I'm sober and 'Nevermore' will the Raven come to bother me at home."_

The girl singing on the screen was small, frail, pale and blonde. Her hair was the color of snow in the sunlight, her eyes a startling green in the paleness of the rest of her. The dress she wore had one shoulder and was much shorter in the front than the back, the same color of her grass green eyes. Black trim of lace marked the top and bottom and trimmed the train pooling behind her.

Yusuke sat still, watching as she sang the song, dancing so elegantly, slowly, to the music. It was heart rendering, watching this fragile thing sing out her soul and he felt like he could see her heart breaking in every move she made.

But her eyes, they were fierce and angry. The only part of her that didn't fit.

"I miss watching her dance." Josh admitted to Vince, who nodded slightly. Yusuke leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, and noticed something had changed. He could see the audience, and there was a man up front with red hair and dark eyes watching the girl like she was the fire that kept him warm at night. A gentle light spread through the crowd, a web, touching everyone and they all seemed to relax visibly under its influence. It seemed to weave straight through their chests and between their bodies.

"_I run a secret propaganda, Aren't we all hiding pieces of broken anger, I'm just trying to remember who I can call, Who can I call?"_

The light turned red and people started to scream as it constricted around them. The red haired man was on his feet, seething, shouting, but the girl's voice continued to ring through the crowd as she danced. Her eyes were glowing brightly and the spotlights shining on her began to flicker.

The crowd was falling now, burns visible even in the dim light they sat in. Some stopped moving as the light grew brighter, stronger, and the man was on the stage, grabbing the girl by the arm. She sang her last line with a smile on her face.

_"Will you remember my name? Will you play it again, if you like this?"_

She fought against the hold on her now, angry. Her hand lashed out, leaving claw marks raking down the side of his face, and he sent her to the floor. His hand was glowing and she cried out, writhing, but the light was winding around his ankles. She screamed and he fell, screaming too as it bound his legs and burned through his pants.

Yusuke couldn't look away as the girl crawled over the man, hovering on all fours above him. Her hand when between them and stripped his belt out of its housing. It took a second to recognize the black whip Scotty always had close at hand. The whip glowed the same angry red as got to her feet, the light seemingly collecting in it. She unleashed her fury one stroke at a time, flaying the man under her without hesitation, repeatedly swinging her arm down, down, down, down. He was ribbons and screaming still when the TV was turned off.

Scotty was standing behind the couch, her face empty.

"I was weaker then." She looked at her reflection in the screen, hardening herself. "Not anymore. I will never be his pet again."

"That was you?" Yusuke blinked back into reality. "Scotty, wh-"

"Wade Jackson was a connoisseur of talent. He could take one look at you and tell you exactly what you loved to do the most, what you were the best at. For me, it was dancing, it's what I wanted more than anything to do. Ballet, tap, jazz, anything, as long as it let me dance. He gave me my dreams on a silver platter." She turned to look at the hanyou emptily. "I should've read the fine print engraved on the bottom of the plate."

He swallowed, then stood up.

"Let's kick his ass then." He offered, clenching his fist with a grin, "I haven't had a single good fight since I set foot in this lame ass town."

"You're insane." She told him coolly. "Wade isn't someone you just go looking for-"

"Why not?" he huffed. "I'm not worried about some scrub club owner."

"He's more than that!" She yelled at him. "He nearly killed us, Yusuke!"

"Us?" he blinked.

"Yes, us. How do you think I met Vince and Annabelle?" she grit her teeth. "This monster is the reason we're a family, and at one point, we all loved him. But we feared him more! You can't just charge in like the Light Brigade, Yusuke!"

He snorted in contempt. "I'm not that easy to scare, or kill, Scotty."

"Well I am." She snapped. "And so far all I've seen you do is kill a fucking vulture, so forgive me if I don't have the confidence in you that you have! I took you on a mission to save someone's life and all you could do was stare around like a scared little boy!"

"I don't kill people!" he yelled back at her, his temper growing.

"Lucky you!" she screamed back. She couldn't help it, she swung a punch at him. He moved too fast for her to see and suddenly her back was biting into the floor as the breath rushed from her lungs. His large hand was covering her throat, squeezing ever so gently.

"I wasn't scared." He told her in a growl. "Where I come from, we have clear sides. There are demons and there are people. Monsters and innocents."

"The line isn't clear cut here," she hissed. "We all have a memory in both puddles, Yusuke. We straddle the wall, we don't get to choose a side."

He let her go. Vince stared at him in angry shock.

"You hurt her!" he complained, rushing to his smaller friend's aid. Annabelle came out from her room, looking half asleep, and stared at them.

"Why are you all making so much noise?" she grumbled.

"Yusuke attacked Scotty!" Josh pointed.

"I swung first," the dark haired girl glared at everyone. "I've got somewhere else to be. Get off of me."

She shrugged her friends off and stormed out of the house. Yusuke frowned, moving to follow. Vince grabbed his arm.

"You ever hurt her again and I'll kill you myself," he sneered. The hanyou just shrugged him off as well and went after the girl.

"What the hell was that about?" Annabelle demanded of the two remaining men.

"Wade is back." Josh summarized, making her stare at the door. "Yusuke wants to hunt him down."

She rolled her eyes and went to the kitchen. "Why are men so irrational?"

* * *

Scotty was buried in the park, hidden behind a wall of trees, repeatedly punching an oak like it would solver her problems. Yusuke walked up and she felt the energy roll of him for the first time and stopped to glare at him.

"Go away." She warned, reaching for her whip.

"Don't do it, Scotty. I don't want to fight you." He warned her darkly. "I didn't even sense you as a demon, do you know what that means?"

"That you're an idiot?" she guessed.

"That you're so low on the totem pole it doesn't even register on my radar of danger." He explained coldly to her. "Whatever you're thinking about this Wade guy, I don't think you can do it."

"You don't know shit from mud," she pointed at him.

"What, you can help me with my problem, but I can't help you?" he huffed. "Listen, you got your ass kicked by a bunch of humans. How can you think you can beat someone you're this afraid of?"

"I'm angry enough!" she yelled. "That's all I need!"

"No it isn't!" he yelled back. She pulled the whip, struck out and it bit through his skin twice. Once on the cheek, the other on his arm as he lifted it to defend his face. She snorted as if to prove this was enough to make him wrong.

But he'd met a more powerful whip user before.

He twisted his arm around and pulled hard, the whip cut into his skin, but it threw her off balance. She tightened her grip on the handle, but it only made it easier for him to drag her closer. Then he kicked her legs out from under her, sending her to the ground. He channeled his energy into his finger tip and pointed it at her while she lie breathless.

"Scotty, I'm one of the highest classes of demons there is." She grimaced. "I can help you. I really can. It's what I'm trained to do."

"I'm not risking anyone else on this asshole." She shook her head. "I've lost someone already, I won't lose another friend."

He stepped back and helped her to her feet, but she just remained sitting cross legged on the ground. He sat beside her.

"When I was born, I was abandoned. I don't know what really happened, but I don't remember much until I was about three." She started to explain to him. He nodded. "Auntie Cambrie found me digging through a trashcan in nothing but a big tee shirt. She took me in, gave me a life, put me in school."

"She was the closest thing I had to family. She always called me her special gift, because her husband had died years before and they had never had children. From early on she knew I wasn't human, but she treated me like I was her own. Except she asked me to call her Aunt, instead of Mom, so that no one would question where I came from since everyone knew she couldn't have children."  
"When I was fifteen, I met Vince. He was a photographer. He started to use me as a model. He loved my blonde hair and green eyes and I used to be tan." She chuckled at that memory. "I let him do pretty much anything because I trusted him. He was like a brother. He is like a brother to me. But with Vince came strings, the thickest of which was named Wade."

"Wade saw the pictures of me and asked to meet me. He told me he could make my dreams come true, I could be a professional dancer. It was all I wanted to be. My childhood dream. Auntie Cambrie had danced ballet in her youth and I loved the pictures of her, I loved to go to the theaters she took me to. I told her about his offer, but she didn't trust it. She always warned me about things that seemed too good."

"I told Vince and he told Wade. Vince tried to cut ties with me, tried to hide me in his life, but Wade had caught my scent. He wanted me for his collection. He killed Cambrie, but I didn't know it then. Then he consoled me at the funeral, where my heart was left shattered over her grave, and I had nowhere to go but with him."

Yusuke was quiet, listening. She stared out in front of them, clutching her whip, and holding her knees to her chest now.

"At first it was heaven. I was in every dance class that I could find the time for. Morning to night all I did was breath dance. And there was Vince. I was happy. I felt like I belonged somewhere. I met Annabelle, she was one of his dancers too. Wade made me feel like I was loved unconditionally."

"What happened?" the hanyou asked curiously. "What changed?"

"Wade discovered my specialty." She looked at her hands. "He figured out that every person has a light, and when I touch that light, I can sort of manipulate them. Not a whole lot, I can't change their minds, but I could make them comfortable. I could make them love me, with enough pressure, for a little while. When I began to dance on stage, and to sing, he'd have me create a web from person to person, forcing the crowd to believe they needed to see me again."

"Sort of like auras?" he suggested.

"No, it's different. It's like… it's like touching someone's inner essence." She tried to explain and failed. "Look, when I focus on you I see a blue light. It radiates from inside you, here." She touched two fingers to his chest, above his heart. Her hand glowed slightly and he felt his muscles loosen as relaxation fell over him. She pulled her hand back.

"See?"

He shook it off like a daze. "So, does everyone have a light? I mean, people and demons alike?"

"Not all demons, because I think the light is reflection of one's humanity." She shrugged. "I don't know a whole lot about it, which is embarrassing. I sort of have to learn as I go. But I know, that any light helps me get stronger. Wade knew that too. That's why, after the first time I realized I could use the light to hurt others, he forced me into the basement."

Yusuke looked at her sharply. "What?"

"One of the customers got handsy." She shrugged. "I didn't know what was happening. I just got angry. The light around him turned red, and I wanted him to learn his lesson. It scared his hands when it burned him. Wade was pissed."

"He put you in the basement?" he repeated.

"Yeah." She shuddered. "I can't be strong without light, Yusuke. We learned that. I can't create it from nothing unless I have a good store of energy. So Wade would keep me in the basement, in the pitch darkness, so that I'd be weak. I got enough energy to live off of the spotlights, but the rest of my life was black."

"You don't realize how important light is, until you're forced to live in pure darkness."

The hanyou listened to her words and hated this unknown enemy for causing her that pain. She seemed like a good person, she tried so hard to help others and to keep others safe. It enraged him that someone could hurt her so badly.

"Wow, is that your energy?" she asked, turning to him with wide eyes at the signals sliding off of him. He blinked and calmed down.

"Yeah. I told you, I'm a King in the Makai. I'm one of the strongest demons there."

"Christ." She stared away from him. "I thought you were being arrogant."

"Not so much," he laughed.

"Alright." She nodded, looking at him. "Listen. I'll let you help me with Wade only if I can actually help you with Keiko."

He shook her hand on that deal. "Agreed. So, what's with your hair? In the pictures and the video, you were blonde."

"I'm naturally blonde," she explained. "But we've been in hiding for about eight months. I had to cut my hair and dye it so that people wouldn't recognize me. I got my tan back too and started to put weight back on."

"He starved you?" he growled.

"No, but I danced all the time, Yusuke. That tends to burn some calories," she chuckled. "I eat like a hungry horse half the time."

"So, how are you going to help me with Keiko?" he asked her, and she grinned a devious smile.

"I have a plan!"

* * *

"Operation Win Her Heart is in full swing!" Scotty announced, back to being good natured, once they got back to the house. Annabelle groaned and Vince shook his head.

"Why are we helping this prick again?" he asked.

"Because Yusuke is my friend, and he's going to help me kill Wade." She waved off further questions. "Here's the plan. We remind Keiko why she loved Yusuke in the first place at the same time showing her how much he's matured. We give her a glimpse of Yusuke 2.0, then ship him back to sweep her off her feet!"

"How do we do that?" Annabelle asked dully.

"First, we start with little forget-me-nots. Send her some postcards, flowers, remember important events in her life even though he's half a world away. He already talks to her all the time, so that part should be easy." The excitable dark haired woman explained.

"And when are we going to start that?"Yusuke asked.

"Today." She nodded to herself.

"What are we going to do?"

""Send her flowers! Come on, today has to mean something." Scotty poked the boy in the forehead.

"It's the first day we kissed." He blushed, and she gave him a sly look.

"Perfect."

"Send her a stripper." Vince glared at the hanyou darkly. "Women love strippers."

"That's enough out of you." Annabelle dug her knuckles into the drunk's scalp. "Scotty is being serious. We'll be serious too."

"But I don't like him."

"Then go to your room."

"Anyways," Scotty took over the conversation again. "So, where did you kiss?"

"On the beach. It was the day I came from Makai after three years. She waited for me the whole time," he smiled happily. "There's never been a girl like Keiko."

"The beach. That's romantic." She grinned. "Alright, so, we send her a bouquet of flowers that will remind her of the beach with a card that reminds her of what happened. Come on, let's call some florists."

* * *

Koenma was sitting at his desk talking to Kurama and Kuwabara, filing papers as usual, when the screen automatically lowered in front of him and Yusuke's face came to life on it. The toddler fell out of his chair, and the other two jumped at the sound of their friend's voice.

"Hey Pacifier Breath, guys." He grinned at them.

"Gah! Yusuke!" Kuwabara ran to the screen. "How's it going man?"

"Not too bad. I found a job and some people to hang out with. Actually, that's why I'm calling. Can you look into a demon named Wade Jackson for me? He's an American. He's known for using people's desires to trap them in deals." He explained.

"Why do you need to know that?" Koenma raised an eyebrow.

"It's for a friend of mine, Scotty." He shrugged.

"Is this friend in trouble?"

"Not yet, but might be. I'm just trying to help out. Scotty is helping me with Keiko." He grinned. "Got to go, it's almost time for work. Let me know, alright?"

The screen went black, leaving the three to stare at it.

"Uh, what the hell was that?"Kuwabara asked. "And who is Scotty? Urameshi is awful at making friends outside of us."

"Maybe he's learned some new skills." Kurama suggested. "He did say that this guy was helping him with Keiko. Maybe they have mutual problems with women."

Kazuma shrugged, turning to Koenma. "So, you gonna look into it for him?"

"No, you are." The toddler smiled. "It'll keep you two busy."

* * *

Yusuke walked home after his shift, tired but happy. Keiko's flowers should arrive in the morning, and he knew she'd love them. Annabelle and Scotty both helped pick them out. They used a lot of blue, because it was her favorite color. He wrote a note telling her he missed her, and reminded her of their first kiss.

He got to the hotel he'd been staying in and found his stuff packed on the street. Frowning, he gathered his bag and marched into the lobby.

"No, you, get out!" the manager pointed at him. "You didn't pay the rent, so we kicked you out. Unless you have back rent and next months, we don't want your business. I'm not about to be taken advantage by some freeloader."

"What the hell? I paid upfront!" he argued, his accent thick.

"Yeah, not enough to cover the last week." He snapped back.

"Where am I supposed to go?" he couldn't quite push that question out in English, so he earned a strange look. "Where is your phone?"

* * *

"Hey."

Yusuke looked up from where he sat on the curb and Scotty looked down at him with a placating smile. He was glowering. She held a frog bubble umbrella, complete with floppy eyes that blew in the wind, over the spot where he sat. The rain had been beating down on him for about twenty minutes.

"Come on." She bent down and picked up one of his bags. Her headphones were around her neck again, and she was wearing her long shorts and low-tops with a plain orange tank top. "We have an extra room."

"Every time I start to fall here, you appear to push me back onto my feet, you know that?" he told her, rising to walk beside her with his duffle bag in hand.

"I've told you, it's what friends are for." She grinned at him.

"Still, thanks." He shrugged awkwardly. "I asked some of my friends to look into Wade for us, see if they can dig up anything worthwhile."

"Thanks." She nodded to the beat. Silence fell between them until she broke it. "I mean, honestly, I don't mind helping at all. Neither does Annabelle. We remember what it was like for us."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Wanting to be human." She told him like it was the easiest thing in the world to see. "We used to hate ourselves for being different too, but eventually, you learn humanity is something you don't have to be human to attain. I know a lot worse people than demons. But, you're still in that place, so I want to help you, because there was no one there to help me, really."

He stared at her. He wanted to tell her he didn't want to be human, he liked himself this way, but it wasn't true. If he were human still, it would fix everything. He and Keiko could be together without thinking about it. He wouldn't feel like a monster sometimes.

"Do you ever feel like a monster just because you're a demon?" he asked quietly.

"All the time." She admitted with that sunny smile, turning to him. "But then I remember that I chose not to become a real monster. I chose to help people. It doesn't bother me as much when I see it that way. I've realized that I'm a demon, I can't change that. I'm happy with who I am now, because if I weren't a demon, I wouldn't be Scotty. Just like you wouldn't be Yusuke."

For a few minutes they walked under the shared umbrella, held a lot higher in her hands because of his height. He took it from her, because her arm sagged and it hit him in the head with every step.

"So, what's the deal with sunflower?" he asked, to start a conversation. She laughed, shrugging.

"It's the nickname Vince gave me when we first met. He said with my blonde hair and green eyes, and the fact I was always covered in dirt, I looked like a sunflower. After he discovered I was a light demon, it stuck, because sunflowers always follow the path of the light."

He nodded. "That makes some sense, I guess."

She just laughed again as they walked, leaving him to consider his thoughts as the rain made the bottom of his pants wet.

**Preview:**

**"Maybe," she rocked from her heels to her toes and back a few times. "I don't know."**

**"Come on," he poked at her. "You know you want to."**

**"Hmm." She played with the idea.**

**"Come on." He drawled out.**

**"Fine." Scotty sighed, glaring playfully at him. "Let's see what you got."**


End file.
